Sonata
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Through the soaring notes of a piano piece love can find each other, even through the greatest of adversity. Elliot/Ada with Vincent/Ada and a whole lot of Reo.
1. Allegro

**Title: **Sonata

**Description:** Through the soaring notes of a piano piece love can find each other, even through the greatest of adversity. Eliot/Ada with Vincent/Ada and a whole lot of Reo.

**Chapter Title: **Allegro

**Chapter Description:** For the first time the heir of Nightray and Ada Vessalius meet. Eliot's prejudice gets the better of them and one leaves their meeting in tears.

**A/N: **This has been a brainchild of mine for quite some time, and I'm just glad I could finally get it down on paper (well, a word processor, but it's close enough). Um… Other than that I don't have much to say! I hope you enjoy it. It'll be four chapters long, one for each movement of the sonata, by the way. Oh, and please review! Good reviewers get my everlasting stalk- I mean love. 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Pandora Hearts_ because if I did Reo wouldn't have had his… incredibly creepy moment in chapter 50.

…

"_I came along, I wrote a song for you and all the things you do and it was called yellow._"

-'_Yellow_' by Coldplay

…

Eliot hated to be in his home. He hated returning to that mansion and seeing all of his smiling, old servants and being with the people that he loved. There was nothing worse for him than returning to his childhood bedroom and lying awake in there for hours on end because sleep never came easy, and when it did all it brought were terrors that he was unable to escape from.

School was a relief. When his parents had first told him that he was going to be sent off he had refused; he had told them that he wanted to stay with his mother and his sister and that it was more unsafe for him to be away from his family than staying with them. His father had told him that he should give it a chance; that he would like being away for a while. Eliot disagreed, but was sent off to school, nonetheless.

Eliot wanted to hate it; he tried his best to hate the cheerful hallways and libraries full of books, but he could not. For a few weeks he walked through the buildings with tears brimming his eyes at all times and loathing every minute, every moment that he was forced to walk through that institution. Then he found the room with the pianos, and everything changed.

Suddenly school was like being on vacation; he could feed his mind and not have to worry about the stresses of being a Nightray. There were no fancy parties to worry about and no headhunter on the loose. For the first time in his life, Eliot could just focus on what he wanted to do, rather than what was expected of him.

He knew how to play the piano, but all he ever played were the select pieces and exercises that his instructors thought were proper. The music was all gorgeous and the best that was composed at the time, but he never chose.

That was why, when he first found the room with pianos, he set his fingers down on the keys and began to play the song in his mind, rather than what was written out for him on the paper.

…

"Ah!" And for the third time that day, Ada Bezarius trips over her own two feet and drops one of her books in the shuffle.

Around her the girls who she is friends with all giggle. Her clumsiness is endearing; it is one of the things that make Ada who she is. "Here, Ada." One of them, a brunette who is a year older than her, says to Ada as she picks up the book that her friend dropped.

Ada blushes a deep red and the girls all continue to laugh. She tries to giggle, but has difficulties keeping up with the rest of them. They mean well; she knows that, but it doesn't mean that she appreciates being laughed at for her clumsiness. It wasn't something that she could really control. She had just been that way her entire life.

"Anyways," The brunette one says as they all return to their normal walking. "Have you heard the news?" She asks the group of twittering girls.

"What news?" A redhead asks, her green eyes shining with anticipation of the gossip. "It couldn't be better than what we heard last week!"

What they had heard last week was nothing compared to the massive news that the brunette knew.

"It's even _better_ than hearing about Duke Barma's drunkenness!" The brunette says and all of the girls, Ada included, now laugh at the story that they had heard the week before. It was fictitious, of course, the nasty rumor spread by a scorned woman whom he had lead on, but it was still one of the more amusing things that they had heard recently. Soon, however, they all quiet down, eager to hear what she has to say. "I hear that the youngest Nightray son and his servant are coming _here_ for school!" She says, but no one laughs.

All heads turn to Ada. "Isn't that the household that hates you, Ada?" A kind blonde girl asks her, not meaning any harm at all, more concerned for her friend's safety, both mentally and physically, than anything else.

Ada shrugs, but she knows that what the girl wondered was true. The Nightrays did hate her, and she didn't know why. An old rivalry from days long since past was no reason to have vendettas against innocent people; it was a cowardly excuse for a pathetic way of life that only hurt everyone involved, in the end. It was horrible, being hated for no real reason, especially when that was the adoptive family of Gilbert and… Vincent. Yes, it was hard to be hated by the family that Vincent was part of, most of all. Ada looks down and her friends notice that she is hurt; they quickly change the subject, wanting to continue seeing Ada smile.

"Never mind it, then." The brunette says, a bit sorry that she hadn't remembered Ada's family situation. "I'm sure he's just a stuck-up prick; that's what I've heard about him, anyway. Apparently all he does is sit in his house with that servant and mope. He almost never goes out in public."

The girls all nodded in agreement. Few of them had met the boy –he had not yet been introduced into society- but they all heard rumors of the cold, self-centered Nightray child. Their hearts went out to him for the tragic deaths of his family, especially the deaths of his more attractive brothers, but none of them thought that they would be able to stand the boy, especially if he was cruel to their cute, little Ada.

"No, no, no!" Ada says, waving her arms in front of her frantically. "I'm sure that he's a fine person; we shouldn't think that way of him before getting to know him!"

As her face was turned to her friends, she did not notice the boy that was walking towards her with a huge pile of books until they made contact, both of them sprawled on the floor with his books all around them.

"Ada, you klutz!" The blonde says and the girls all laugh. "Catch up to us later!" They all run off leaving Ada behind with the boy, almost glad for the diversion. Ada was a sweet girl, but they no longer wanted to tip toe around her problems. Gossip was all they had and they wanted to do it the right way.

Frenzied, Ada starts to pick up the boy's books. "Sorry!" She says quickly as she begins to pile them up in between the two of them. "I'm so sorry!" Near to tears, she grabs all of the books she can and stacks them up, only to have them fall once the heap began to get too tall. "I'm so sorry!" She repeats again, using her arms to drag all of the books together in one pile.

The boy smiles and pushes his glasses up on his nose. "Don't worry about it, no harm done," He says as he grabs the books and puts them into a stack, this time with the larger ones on bottom and smaller ones on top so that they won't topple over. Ada blushes red, wishing that she had thought of doing the same thing. Sometimes she thinks that she's the most stupid and clumsy girl in the world.

"No really! I'm so sorry!" She says as she stands up. She knows she needs to find a way to make this up to him; he was probably in a rush somewhere and she must have really been a burden to him. That was unforgivable. "Let me help you carry those to wherever you were going," Before he can even get up, she's grabbed half of the books, making his stack quite smaller and his burden much lighter.

"If you'd be willing." He asks and she nods with great enthusiasm, happy for the help. "Then follow me."

The two of them walk in silence for a minute, Ada too embarrassed to say anything and the boy just content. "I'm Reo," He says realizing that she probably feels uncomfortable. "I just started going here with my employer."

"Employer?" Ada asks, confused.

The boy chuckles. "Yes, I'm his servant. But I get a top-class education out of it. That's pretty great."

"It is!" She says, then blushes remembering that she never introduced herself. "My name is Ada Vessalius."

The boy trips a little in his step, nearly dropping his books. Before Ada can ask him if he's alright, he turns to her. "You mean, Ada Vessalius from the Vessalius dukedom?" She nods her head. He forces a smile. "You know, it's a long walk from here to where we're going. If you don't want to go it's really-"

"No!" Ada says a bit too loudly, causing the few people who didn't have classes and were spending some time in the hallway to look her way. Noticing that, she lowers her voice. "Don't think that because I'm the daughter of a duke I would be insulted by helping someone who I knocked over!" Tears are nearly brimming her eyes. "I did something bad and I need to apologize."

He smiles. "All right, I just thought I would make sure," The truth was, he knew that she was willing and perfectly capable of helping him out. The reason that he didn't want her to follow him was much different than that.

…

He fiercely scribbles a few unrecognizable things onto a page lined with music staffs on the stand next to his piano stool, then turns back to the instrument itself, grabbing the music off of the stand and putting it on the piano for him to read off of. Gingerly he places his hands on the keys, like if he were touching a child. An instrument was a gift from God; nothing was more important or beautiful than a tool that he could produce music from. He had always felt that it needed to be treated with the tenderest care of all things.

Taking a deep breath, he presses his middle finger down upon middle C, producing a perfectly in-tune note. He exhales; this is what he lives for. His hands are positioned and ready on the keys, and he begins.

As he plays the beginning of his composition he notices that something is lacking in the music that he has composed. The piece itself is a sonata, a piece in four movements. The past night he had stayed up until three am composing the first movement, an allegro named _Meeting_. Now he was ferociously working on the second movement, an adagio that did not yet have a title or any spirit, apparently.

The problem was that it was lacking something, and he did not know what it was he could do to change the situation. What the piece was missing was soul; the allegro had something behind it, an emotional power, whereas this adagio was dull and lifeless. He felt like swearing.

Shaking his head, he throws the music for his adagio on the floor and picks up the allegro from the stand. He begins to play that, shutting his eyes for the music that he had written was almost already completely memorized by him already, so he was able to lose himself within the melodies that he had created.

An allegro is a fast movement; a happy movement. It is the beginning, what the listener hears first. The allegro grabs the audience and sucks them in, entrancing them in the notes of the piece and keeping them glued to the pianist's movements for the rest of the piece. He loved _Meeting_ and how it flowed. He was angry that he could not get the adagio to behave, but the soaring melody of the allegro calmed him.

The door opens, but he doesn't notice, nor care, to fixated on the piece that he was playing.

"Set the music down on the other stand, Reo," He says absently as his fingers continue to traverse the keys with a skill that only the truly dedicated could ever hope to possess. "And bring those books over here."

Reo nudges Ada and points over to the piano. "You heard the man," He says with a smile that Ada returns to him, her green eyes sparkling, though not from Reo, but from the music that she was listening to.

She is already lost in the song; it's lovely, probably one of the most lovely pieces of music that she had ever listened to in her life. The melody soared and flew around her, a happy air in the coldness that had been her life up until that moment. Something that had been missing in her life a few moments ago was now returned, though she had no clue what. As she walked over, she shut her eyes, letting the music take her over, make her feel, making her remember emotions that she had buried beneath her skin and letting the happiness that she had been hiding warm her soul once again without regret.

That was when she tripped.

It wasn't even a big fall; she managed to stay upright, even. Still, one of the heavy tomes that she was carrying fell to the floor with a clunk. The music stopped abruptly and for the first time Eliot's focus was pulled away from the piano and towards Ada, his head popping up over the piano in almost a comical fashion.

"Who are you?" He asks, looking from her to Reo and back again. "And who let you in?"

Reo walks over to Eliot. "We bumped into each other in the hall and she offered to help carry the books you wanted-"

"I'm really sorry!" Ada says, picking up the book and then bowing in apology, only to make two more fall to the ground. Eliot rolls his eyes as she picks them back up. "I-I'll leave immediately!"

Eliot shrugs. "Don't bother," He looks down at the piano and then back up at her again. "Did you like the song?" There's a little red on his face, so he turns a bit to try to hide the blush. He hadn't wanted anyone but Reo to hear him play, especially since it was a new piece. It was embarrassing to be so exposed as to have someone he didn't know listening to a work in progress. But it was his own fault for not noticing the girl and if she was here she probably had an opinion and maybe something constructive to say about the piece that may help it. His pride was less important than the music; this was the one area in which he would listen to someone else to improve himself.

Ada's worries fade away and her eyes begin to twinkle once again. "It was beautiful," She says. "I've never head anything like it…" Eliot snorts and rolls his eyes once again. "What?" Ada asks, confused, wondering why he didn't seem as entranced with the music as she did, despite the fact that he was its creator.

"The ritardando in the second ending of measure thirty doesn't fit at all and the chords in measure one-oh-seven are all wrong," He sighs and looks down at the music. "This is far from being something memorable." He mumbles, then after being lost in his thought for a moment, looks back up at Ada, his eyes narrowed. "Who are you, again?" He asks, realizing that he had never learned this girl's name.

She smiles. "My name is," Reo winces next to Eliot, praying that she only gives her first name so that maybe Eliot wouldn't put two and two together. "Ada Vessalius, and you-"

Eliot stands up, staring at her. "Get out," He says, eyes as cold as ice, his voice a shard flung right at Ada's head with as much menace as he could muster.

"Eliot-" Reo says from next to him, but the boy puts a hand in front of Reo, ordering him to stop. Smiling feebly and apologetically at Ada, he takes a step back.

"What are you talking about?" Ada asks. Eliot stares at her so coldly that she turns to Reo, hoping for some sort of an explanation as to why this boy hates her so much with only knowing her name. It couldn't be that he was…

Guilty, Reo looks down at his feet. "Miss Ada, this is my employer, Eliot Nightray, heir to the Nightray dukedom," Eliot straightens up at the mention of his name, but his eyes remain locked on Ada, the fierce intensity of hatred within them frightening and chilling her to the core. "He and I are both in our first year here. It's our pleasure to meet you."

Ada tries to smile. "I'm also pleased to meet you too, Eli-"

"Just get out of here!" Eliot yells, knocking down the music stand that was next to his piano bench, sending pages of paper flying around him, landing all over the place. "You Vessalius piece of shit! Get out of my sight, you filth!"

"Eliot, you're being childish," Reo says, shaking his head and walking over to Ada. "It's probably best if you leave now; thank you very much for helping me with the books. You have my gratitude." He takes her hand, shakes it, and smiles.

Though she's a bit shell-shocked, Ada manages to shake his hand back and give forth a meager smile, nothing like the one that she wore when she was listening to Eliot's song. The fact that such a beautiful piece of music could come from such a cold person made Ada feel more alone and sad than she had in years; in fact, she hadn't felt this full of despair since her brother had been thrown into the Abyss. She felt like crying, she was so upset. "I'm happy to have met you, Reo. We'll-"

Suddenly Reo jerks back, his hand wrenched from Ada's; Eliot had grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him away. "Can you not understand what I say, you moron?" Eliot yells at her, his voice more breathy than loud. "Get out of here, now!" He's almost sweating, he's so angry, and his grip on Reo's coat makes his knuckles turn white. In his voice there is almost a sense of fear and urgency. There is nothing in this world he hates more than the Vessalius dukedom and will make that known to this girl, even if her only crime is being part of that heinous family.

A few tears sprinkle down Ada's cheeks; she doesn't even reach a hand up to her face to catch them she is so flabbergasted.

"Now you've done it," Reo says, not even struggling to get away from his master, just speaking plainly from his grip. "Apologize, Eliot. You're in the wrong, here."

Eliot lets go of Reo and walks back to the piano. "Just go." He says, facing out of a window that was behind the instrument. Ada turns to Reo and the boy nods; she leaves, knowing that she never wants to go back in there.

…

"There's music from the room with the pianos for the first time in forever! It's wonderful." Says the redhead, her eyes sparkling. She had spotted Eliot a week ago and in record time she had learned Eliot Nightray's schedule, preferences and habits and because of this she had the happy coincidence of running into him every day after all of his classes. Stalking was a mean term, but all of her friends knew that it was the appropriate way to describe what she had been doing, not that any of them were much better when it came to the tortured musical genius, Eliot Nightray. "And the songs are so pretty; I've never heard any of them before, either. Do you think that he writes his own music?"

Ada knows that he writes his own music, but she's not going to go mentioning that. It had been ten days since she had encountered him in the piano room and she had little contact with him since then. Honestly, she couldn't say that she was disappointed about that, either. Never before had someone been so rude to her for no reason. Just thinking about it made her want to tear up.

"That's what I hear," Says the brunette, whose type of man is much more like Eliot's bookworm servant. Every time she saw Reo in the hallway her face would turn red and she would do whatever she could to get his attention, if only for a moment. "He composes it by himself when he's not busy with classes. That's why he's always in there, even when there's not much music coming out."

"He's so dreamy!" Says the blonde, causing the group of girls, again sans Ada, to break out into happy giggles, playing out their fantasies of having him write them a song and play it in their honor before he proposed and they got to add their names to that of a dukedom. All of these were unrealistic dreams, but thoughts they had, nonetheless. They were teenage girls and their minds were still full of imagination and were not yet cynical.

As if on cue, Eliot himself and Reo walk by, Eliot walking fast with Reo looking as if he were struggling to keep up as he held a great deal of sheet music in his hands. The redhead waves at Eliot, which he ignores and the brunette tries to catch Reo's eye.

It's not the brunette's eye that Reo tries to catch. "Good morning, Miss Ada!" He says cheerfully. Eliot speeds up even more and Reo has to run to catch-up, beginning to chastise Eliot as soon as he gets in pace once again.

All of the girls turn to Ada, angry that she hadn't told them that she knew the two of them so well, but when they turn she's already begun walking down the hallway, the opposite way from Eliot Nightray.

When she gets to her classroom her teacher passes her a flyer at the door with a smile. Her eyes traveled along the words of the piece of paper. It told her that in one week there would be a school-wide trip and that all who would like to could attend. Ada smiled; there was now something to be excited for. The chance to go skiing with her friends would be wonderful. She walked to her seat with a new spring in her step.

In another classroom Eliot receives the same flyer and glances at it with a grimace.

"Are you going to go?" Reo asks him, interested.

"Do you want to?" Eliot asks, knowing that his servant has probably never been skiing before. Reo shrugs, although a small smile tugs at his lips; Eliot knows that he wants to go. "Then maybe I'll go. At least it'll give me something to look forward to in this crappy school."

Reo nods in agreement. "It's always nice to have something to keep you going," He says, taking his seat. "And I'm sure that it'll be a good chance for you to make some new friends, too." Eliot rolls his eyes and their teacher walks up to the front of the classroom and another day of school begins.

…

_End of Chapter One_


	2. Adagio

**Chapter Title:** Adagio

**Chapter Description:** The cold ski trip heats up when a misunderstanding pulls Eliot and Ada together without anyone else and without a jacket.

**A/N: **I had most of this written. And then I had an idea and had to rewrite two chapters. It wasn't fun, but I think that it was probably worth it in the end… That explains the randomly long time between updates. Sorry ya'll. :/ I'll try to work more diligently… I'd work even more diligently if someone possibly drew some fan art for the courtyard scene? I've never gotten a reader to draw some for me and I'd be UBER excited because I… I have no artistic skills whatsoever. :(

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Pandora Hearts_ because if I did, Alice's meat obsession would be a little less creepy.

…

"One, two," Anton pauses. "Are you sure that you can-"

"Let's go," Ada tells him and he smiles; Ada Vessalius had more guts than he had expected… and a gorgeous smile.

"Alright. One, two, three!" And then with a quick push from him Ada began down the hill. Never before had she been skiing, but she was adamant about being able to ski down the same slopes as her friends by the end of the trip. A nice boy who was a year younger than her had offered to help teach her –named Anton- and he had been a great help. He had already given up a day of going on the fun slopes himself to teach her how to get down the dinkiest of hills. She felt bad, but that made her even more determined to get better and skiing and quickly.

Still, her determination didn't make up for lack of skill, taught or natural. Three seconds after pushing off on the beginner hill she fell flat on her face in the cold white snow.

Her instructor -who had been skiing with his family every year since he could remember and had quite a knack for it- skis down the hill with great ease, coming to Ada who was having trouble standing up, white snow covering her clothes and in her hair. "Maybe we should call it a day," he tells her with a charming and sympathetic grin. "You've been working harder than everyone else and most of our classmates have gone inside already…" It's not that he doesn't want to quit being with Ada; he's thinking that maybe now is a time for a cup of hot chocolate, rather than the slopes, for her own sake. It would be a shame if she tried too hard and overworked herself and broke a bone, or something.

She was reluctant to accept Anton's, offer, but she _was_ getting tired and she knew that he had already been such a great help to her and she couldn't even think of denying him the warmth of a fire after such a cold day. "Sure," she tells him with a smile even though she's feeling worthless. "It's getting dark out, anyways. They're probably looking for us." They were so out of the way from everyone else on the tougher hills that all of their classmates could have gone inside and they would have never known.

"Here," he holds out a hand and she grasps it, finally able to get up. "Shall we?"

Together they went down the slope, slowly, Anton holding Ada's hand the entire way with the excuse that he was worried that she'd fall down if he didn't. He couldn't say that he had minded; when he had found out that the Vessalius heir couldn't ski he jumped on the opportunity to teach her. For the longest time he had seen her in the halls and on the way to class and had never gotten to speak to her. He had always wanted to, however, and this was exactly the opportunity that he wanted to get to know her.

"Anton!" They look back and see a guy that Anton recognized from class skating towards them. Reo, he thought his name was. Someone who, though they were cordial to each other, was not exactly his friend. When Ada realizes who he is, her stomach drops and she looks frantically around, but she can't see the boy's master around. With a deep breath she feels relieved; it was nice to see Reo if Eliot wasn't around.

"Hey Reo," Anton says with an easy smile. "What's up?"

"Well, we –meaning Eliot and I- were just wondering if you'd join us for dinner tonight? Eliot's just catching one last slope before he comes down to the lodge" He turns to smile at Ada. "Of course you're invited, too, Ada."

Ada, somehow, does not believe that Eliot knows that his friend had invited her and she gets the feeling that if he did know, he wouldn't be entirely pleased with that. Besides, this weekend was supposed to be fun for her; dinner with people who hated her didn't seem like a particularly joyous way of spending her time. "Um, thank you, but I should probably-"

"Don't worry Miss Ada, I understand," Reo says with a sad smile. "I know how it is between your two households; if you don't want to try to breach the gap between the two of them then that is up to you."

Ada's stomach plunges. Of course she wants to make the households get along better! If the Nightrays and Vessalius were able to get along then she and Vincent could…

She puts a fake, nervous smile on. "What do you mean, Reo? Of course I was going to accept your kind invitation! I was just about to say that I… need to change before going to dinner. I fell into the snow a few times and I'm afraid that my clothes are quite wet."

Both Reo and Anton wear smiles, but of different sorts. "Very well," Reo says with the sly grin of a chess master about to win his game. "We'll see you both in the dining room in half an hour."

…

Anton wasn't there.

No matter how much she looked to either side of her, no matter how often she glanced behind her, no matter how much she wished, hoped, and prayed that he'd show up, Anton wasn't there.

Instead Ada found herself sitting at an uncomfortably long table with only a scowling Eliot and a pleasantly grinning Reo. It seemed that Eliot had been fine with giving the invitation to Ada, but had not believed that she would accept it. He ate his meal grunting occasionally when Reo attempted to involve him in the conversation and taking angry looking bites out of the chicken that they were served.

Reo, however, looked quite pleased with himself as he contentedly ate his meal and made pleasant chitchat with Ada.

Halfway through the chicken, however, Ada really began to worry. "I should probably go find Anton," she tells the two boys. "Not to mention, I haven't seen any of my friends, either…" Ada looked around again. Not only did she not see any of her friends, she saw no one that she recognized at all. Most of the people around them seemed to be guests at the ski lodge that were not there with their school. "Are we in the wrong room?"

"No, we're not, Miss Ada," Reo tells her. "We're in exactly the right place; it's just that it's not where everyone else is." A vein in Eliot's throat is twitching, but his eyes remain fixated on the food in front of him. Reo, however, is smiling at Ada with a jovial demeanor. "Eliot thought that you may want to have something a bit fancier than what they were serving to everyone else, so he requested a table in the restaurant rather than the dining hall." Eliot's face turns red as he stares at his plate of food. "He really wanted you to be comfortable, he's really thoughtful that way."

She tries not to let the surprise show on her face, but it does as she addresses Eliot. "Thank you. I'm really happy that you'd do that, though I really wouldn't mind eating with everyone-"

"Then go!" Looking up from his plate of food for the first time in quite some time, Eliot's face is bright red and frantic looking.

Of course Ada, who has never seen Eliot embarrassed before, mistakes his blush for anger and is quite scared. "Eliot, calm down!" Reo says, but it is too late. Ada, afraid of what happened last time, shot up from her seat and ran out one of the doors in the restaurant.

For a moment there is silence between the two boys as they stare at her disappearing body. Then something hard hits Eliot's head and he realize that it's Reo's fist. "Moron, go follow her," he says almost without emotion. With a quick glance to Reo, Eliot does that just that, vaguely realizing that Reo is behind him.

He gets to the door and runs outside, yelling Ada's name. He is surprised when he steps into snow, his feet getting caught and nearly having him lose his balance. Earlier in the evening Reo had told him that this door had lead to the hotel, not out into the cold. He looks back to see that the door has just shut behind him, Reo still inside. He grabs hold of the handle and tries to turn it, finding that it has been locked. "Reo!" He yells, but hears nothing. He bangs on the door, but there is no response.

"Eliot, is that you?" The voice is timid and a bit scared sounding. He turns around and is face to face with Ada. "I think that we're in some sort of courtyard; there's no way out. Does the door work?" Though it was dark out, she could see Eliot shake his head. "Oh, no," she says, grabbing a piece of her hair and sliding her hand down it. "How are we going to get back in?"

It was true that this was some sort of courtyard. They were surrounded by walls on all four sides of the square and it seemed like the only door was the one back into the restaurant. "Why the hell would they even _make_ it like this?" It wasn't like any plants could grow in this weather and there were no windows. There was no decorative fountain and no reason to-

He took a step to the side and realized why this was there.

"This is for their dogs… to do their business." It must have been fresh, because when Eliot looked down, his nice shoe was now an unpleasant shade of brown and smelling worse than the oldest of shoes on the smelliest of feet stank. "Great," he says with a sigh.

The two of them stand there for a minute and Eliot notices that Ada, only in a relatively simple green dress (it was advised that girls leave their fancier clothes at school so that they would not have to carry as much luggage), was shivering. He hadn't noticed how cold it was because he was cozy and warm in his long pants and woolen coat. There were no lights in the courtyard but he could make out the outline of her arms crossed over her chest and was shivering something fierce. They had only been out there for about two minutes and she was frozen; if Reo didn't open the door quickly, then she would become an icicle.

He bangs on the door, but what he doesn't know is that Reo had expected this to happen and had paid a waiter to stand guard at the door, telling anyone who mentioned the noise that two criminals had been apprehended and were being kept in the courtyard until the police came. While Eliot and Ada worked out their differences in the cold, Reo finished his dinner and ordered desert on Eliot's tab. They are outside for at least ten minutes before Eliot gives up banging on the door.

"No one seems to hear us," Eliot says exasperated and despairing. "But Reo followed me over to the door… Little bastard."

"D-don't say that," Ada scolds as her teeth chatter. "He's probably just-t getting a k-k-k-key." She sneezes into the snow. "Ex-excuse me," she tells him in a pathetic little voice.

Without thinking he begins to unbutton his coat. It is a dark gray pea coat, a gift from his father before he left for school. Incredibly expensive and fashionable, not that Eliot cared much. It was warm. "Here," he says, taking it off and holding it out to her, looking away from her even though it was dark enough that he wouldn't have to make eye contact with her. "Take this."

"But-t-"

"Just take it. I don't need to be blamed for murdering you if you freeze to death out here." Despite the macabre statement, Ada grabs the coat and slips it on. Though it is tight around the chest, it fits well and is incredibly warm.

"Thank you Eliot," she says, nuzzling into the coat, basking in the warmth of Eliot's body heat. "But are you sure-"

"Don't worry about it," Eliot says, already feeling the chill in the thin white shirt that he had worn under the coat. "The heir to the Nightray dukedom can withstand anything. A little cold won't kill me."

There's silence for a moment before Ada speaks in a small voice. "If you want it back, then just tell-"

"I won't, so just be grateful."

Again there is silence between the two of them. "My friend told me that you were going to leave school to go on a tour to play piano, is that true?" Ada asks, not knowing if it was at all appropriate.

Eliot makes a snort of a laugh. "Where did she hear that nonsense? It would be disgraceful for me to leave school to do something like that." He pauses for a moment before adding, almost too quietly for Ada to hear, "Besides, no one would want to hear me play."

"That's not true!" Ada interjects too quickly. Forgetting to be embarrassed, Eliot looks over at her. In the dark her face turns red and she turns away from Eliot's stare. "That song I heard you play was… lovely. I thought it was beautiful." Smiling at the mere memory of the music that had played –not the events that had transpired afterwards- she continued to speak, though more than self-conscious and worried that what she would say would somehow make Eliot angrier at her. "It was passionate and… full?" She laughs nervously. "I know next to nothing about music. I can only tell if it's something that I like or something that I don't. I liked the song that you were playing. I liked it a lot."

Eliot doesn't respond; there's silence all around them. Part of her mind wonders if Eliot has stopped breathing because what she said to him was so offensive. She opens her mouth to say something else, but comes up short on what she could do. Apologize? No, that'd be wrong. All she did was share what she felt about his music. If he didn't take the compliment that it was as it was meant to be then it fell entirely on his shoulders, not hers. Still, she itched to say something, just to see if Eliot was okay, but nothing came to mind.

"Thank you." She's surprised but… happy. Happy that he spoke to her as if she were a real person and not just some piece of Vessalius scum that was worth less than what the dogs left in this courtyard. "I'm…" The words are hard for him to get out. "Sorry for what happened that day." His voice is quiet but she can hear it.

She can't help it; she grins. "Is that why-"

"Yes." He hugs his chest with his arms; the chill was starting to get to him. "It was my idea to invite you to eat with us." He frowns, not really liking where this conversation is going. It was too personal. Yes, he meant to apologize for what happened, but he never meant to be stuck alone with her for this long. In the back of his mind Eliot was convinced that in the morning their headmaster would come looking for them and find only two human icicles covered in dog crap.

Though it was chilly outside, Ada suddenly felt very warm. She knew that the boy who composed that song could not be as cruel as he had been to her that day. He was proud; she had realized that long ago. So she would not tell him how happy she was to hear that, but she couldn't help but to grin. "Thank you, Eliot," she said, unable to let it go by without any comment at all.

He frowned and turned his back to Ada. "There aren't even windows on any of these walls; no one but Reo knows where we are." He sighs and rubs his hands over his arms, seeing if he could get some feeling back in either of them. "If we don't make it out of this alive I am going to haunt the crap out of him."

Though she can see how cold he is, she doesn't know what to do. She only has one idea to help him out, but she doubts that he would go for it. All she can do is watch as he tries to keep himself warm.

"Before he disappeared, my brother would make me soup when I was sick. I was really little back then, but I can still remember how I would always be overeager and burn my tongue on the soup, just because I was so happy that he did it for me. The soup wasn't very good, but it just felt nice that he made it, and it was hot and felt good going down my throat. I'd really like to have some of that now," she says with a small laugh. "I can't think of anything I'd like more than a bowl of soup."

Eliot turns to face Ada, barely able to see her with nothing but the moon lighting the area. Still, he couldn't help but thinking that her hair against the white backdrop of the snow and the moon shining down, illuminating her eyes was sort of picturesque –sort of perfect. "When we get inside and cook Reo in a stew then I'll make sure to give you some."

"Stew? You can't be serious Eliot! Could you? That would be very cruel! Maybe he's been searching for a key this entire time and you-"

It was Eliot's turn to sneeze. "Excuse-" he can't get the words out before he begins to cough.

Though she was sure that he would decline her offer, she couldn't see Eliot suffer that way, especially since he not only apologized to her for what had transpired between the two of them, but had also given her the jacket off of his own back. "Um, Eliot?"

"Ye-yes?" He asks between chattering teeth.

"Since you seem very cold… I… um…" Her cheeks turn bright red and she's glad that in the darkness he couldn't possibly see it. "I was wondering if you'd like to come over here and hold me… I mean, like, hug!" Every inch of her was burning with embarrassment at her inability to articulate what she was thinking. "Or… So that we could stay a bit warmer. When brother and I were lost in the woods once he told me to hold onto Gilbert if I was cold because people have a natural body heat that will help them stay warm so together it makes a flame!" The last part was her brother's words and not her own, so she felt proud saying them, though they were a bit silly. "Except Gilbert ran away when he said this, muttering something about knowing the way out, but that doesn't really matter…" She shook her head, trying to get herself to stop rambling. "What I mean is that if you want to use my body heat, Eliot, I'd be more than happy to share it with you!"

Eliot Nightray was mortified.

"That's a very improper sort of thing to say," he told her, trying to keep his teeth from chattering and almost succeeding at it. "Not the most ladylike-"

And then Ada Vessalius became mortified. "I didn't mean it in any sort of… _way_," she told Eliot, frantic now that he didn't misunderstand her. "I just thought that you'd be cold! You've lasted so long without your jacket and I thought I… would just offer…" They both trail off and stare into opposite directions.

That is, until Eliot breaks the silence with another cough.

Ada can't help it, then. She runs over to him and, once he's done, puts her arms around him and pulls him close to her. If he were to get sick because of her, she would never forgive herself. It didn't matter if he thought that she was forward and hated her forever; she just wanted him to be warm.

"What are you-"

"You sound so cold that I can't help it, Eliot! Please don't hate me; all I want is for you to stop suffering." When she doesn't hear him reply, she sighs a breath of relief. He may not be happy with the arrangement, but at least he wasn't pushing her to the ground either. They stood like that together for a minute before Eliot moved his hands around Ada's back. A grin formed on her face; he cared as much as she did, apparently. And though she could not see Eliot's face, she was sure that he was just as happy as she was and that was enough to-

"ADA!" The great burst of light and loud voice made both she and Eliot jump. They let go of each other too late, but the damage was done. Anton stared at them as if he was terrified of what he had just seen. "Sorry, I'll let you guys finish," he said as he began to shut the door.

"NO!" Both she and Eliot screamed at the same time as they ran towards the light and were able to get out of the courtyard and back to the courtyard.

Still, despite the story that they told Anton and Reo, they had still be seen in a compromising position and the rumor that Eliot Nightray was courting Ada Vessalius and their secret rendezvous had been found by another student spread across the students like wildfire.

…

The next morning Ada woke-up to the unhappy realization that she would be leaving the ski resort that morning, earlier than the rest of the students. When the headmaster had found out about the incident with she and Eliot being locked in the courtyard, he had checked to see if they were ill and found that Ada had a slight temperature. Because of that he decided that, unlike the rest of the students who would be leaving late that evening, Ada would return to the school as soon as she woke-up.

Her roommates had all been cold to her the night before when she had come in and had left without her that morning without even saying goodbye. Unsure as to why they would do that she packed her remaining things and headed to the lobby of ski resort.

"Are you ready to go Miss Vessalius?" The man who would drive her home asked her with a smile. She nodded. "You seem displeased," he said, his kind eyes sparkling. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged, unsure as to why she was so unhappy. Sure, she did not want to leave early from the trip, but there was something else that made her feel sad as well, though she could not place her finger on it…

"Did someone say Miss Vessalius?" A man in a blue uniform ran up to her with a package in his arms. "Thank goodness; someone had said that you had left already. A group of girls, actually." With a frown Ada realized that it was probably her friends who had told him that. "But I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to give this to you."

He hands the package to her and she takes it. "Is this really for me?" she asks him as she stares at the black, unwrapped box.

The man smiles. "Yes miss! It was on special delivery, too. Someone must have really wanted you to get whatever was in there."

Without a confused smile she opened the package gingerly. Her smile became even more confused when she saw the bouquet of red roses with a small silver mask with pearls around the edges of it. Placed on top of the mask was a small white card. Abandoning the box on a nearby table she glanced at the writing on it.

_My dear Ada,_ it said in a spidery script. _I shall be seeing you soon. Until I can, I hope that this meager gift can satisfy my burning love for you. Sincerely, Vincent Nightray_.

For some reason her hand began to shake. She had all but forgotten Vincent within the past few hours. Thoughts of him had not crossed her mind since Reo had first asked her to have dinner with him and Eliot…

Eliot?

Why did that name make her sweat and shake a little more? She shook her head and took up the package. The carriage driver had already grabbed her suitcase and had taken it to the carriage, just returning now. "Thank you," she told the deliveryman with a smile, sad that she had not brought any money to tip him with.

"It's no problem Miss Vessalius, have a wonderful day," he responded before walking out the door to his carriage.

The carriage driver smiled at Ada and told her that it was time for the two of them to go. Confused and tired she grabbed the box and went to the carriage with him. "It's mighty thoughtful of that person to send you something here. They must have really had a reason to do that!" She nodded, somewhat unable to focus. Maybe she did have a fever… "Still, the mask is a bit strange. Is there a reason that they would send you that?"

During the trip she had all but forgotten, but there was a reason for the mask. One that she now was dreading. "Next week at my school the families of all of the students are coming," she told him. "At the end of it, as a party, there will be a masquerade."

A masquerade that it now seemed that Vincent would be attending.

…

Meanwhile, Eliot could not sleep. He hadn't slept all night and not for the usual reasons. He had told Reo that he was too cold to go to bed and had stayed up by the fire, furiously scribbling notes down onto a piece of paper that he had hastily covered with music staffs when he had the inspiration.

The second movement of his sonata –the slower adagio- would be called '_Snow_' and it was about a girl, shivering in the moonlight with shadows all around her.

…

_End of Chapter Two_


	3. Minuet

**Chapter Title:** Minuet

**Chapter Description:** Preparations for the school's masquerade ball are underway, but Elliot is sure that he's not going. That is, until, he has a few unexpected visitors in his life…

**A/N: **Lack. Of. Updates. I apologize. School is hard. Way hard. However, I thank everyone kindly for the fantastic feedback I've been getting. It really does brighten my day to see your—usually—sweet words. Anyhow, not much to report except I've switched the spelling of 'Eliot' to 'Elliot'. Things have changed since this was last updated. Things. Have. Changed. This is the second to last chapter, by the by. The next one will be the final; it will be long. Be prepared.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Pandora Hearts_, its characters or anything affiliated with it.

…

There were moments when Elliot wrote music where he thought that the world stopped in order for him to do it. In the time that he returned from the skiing trip to the day that the families of students came, Elliot was filled with such inspiration that—with the exception of classes and the occasional meal—he sat in his room and wrote. Time seemed irrational; it seemed like it didn't matter at all.

Elliot's parents weren't coming to parents' week.

He had nothing against them for it; he knew that since they were such important people that they had more important things to do then to come visit their son and listen to the principal of his school make about eighty long, boring speeches then watch a polo game that the school would lose and eat mediocre cafeteria food after that. In fact, it was almost a relief that his parents would not be coming. That way he would not have to lose valuable time where he could be working or writing music on showing them around and explaining to them that yes, he could have friends, but no, he just didn't want them.

"Elliot, dinner will be over in a half hour." Reo entered without knocking as he usually did. "You should probably go get something to eat." Elliot sighed; the bastard made Elliot lose his concentration at a pivotal point in his composition. If he were to be distracted now for the sake of a meal, how was he ever going to get this bass line to flow correctly with the melody?

The artist's temperament is one that is very volatile. One moment an artist can be as happy as a metaphorical clam, but the next the artist can be as enraged as Vesuvius when it exploded over Pompeii and Pliny the Elder. However, Elliot did not display the usual artist's temperament. Instead he was apt to explode ninety percent of the time, to be sarcastic for seven percent of it and to smile for three of it. That made for rather bad odds for anyone to catch him in a good mood. Reo was all too used to that already. That was why it came as no shock when Elliot took the Vesuvius route.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Elliot shouted at his friend, throwing his pencil across the room. Luckily for Reo, Elliot was not a javelin thrower and the pencil missed his head by a good six inches. It did, however, get stuck in the wall where it hit, making Reo wonder what sort of injury he would have sustained had the pencil actually made its target. "You've broken my concentration."

"You know, Elliot…" There was something teasing in Reo's voice that Elliot did not like. In fact, that look only came when Reo knew something that would make Elliot completely and utterly miserable. Elliot narrowed his eyes, ready for battle. "Ada Vessalius is sitting at a table alone down there, writing something or another. Maybe you ought to go keep her company."

A frown formed on Elliot's features. That wasn't the sort of comment that he had been expecting, especially not from Reo. Something dark came to mind, but he shook it away. The Nightray house was noble, the Vessalius were cowards. There was no reason that he should have felt anything but hatred when he heard her name. "So?" he asked, finally, after what seemed like forever. Or at least long enough for Reo to confirm what he had suspected all along.

Reo shrugged. "I thought that you would be curious. The two of you haven't talked since you were locked outside together. I thought that maybe-"

"Can't you see I'm busy, Reo?" he muttered, looking back down at his music. "Go do some homework or something and leave me alone."

Elliot didn't scream. He didn't throw a fit and push Reo out of the room. As he walked out, Reo couldn't help but to smile a bit. Maybe Elliot didn't want to admit it, but something had happened out there on the ski trip. Something that would probably change Elliot for the better, if he let it.

…

Vincent Nightray was, had been, and always would be a creep. Ada Vessalius, however, never saw him like that. "He's an angel," she told her friends when they asked about the flowers and mask that she had received. "Just the kindest guy in the world." Any jealousy that her friends might have had towards her because of the special attentions of Elliot Nightray was now gone; since Ada had a secret boyfriend, she was no longer a threat.

It just so happened that at the same time that Ada was extolling the virtues of her unnamed boyfriend, a certain other Nightray came down to the cafeteria with pages of music to see if, maybe, a certain girl wanted to come listen to the song that he had composing. Without being seen, he swallowed his pride and walked back up to his room.

He couldn't write another note of music all night.

…

Ada's parents weren't coming to parent's week, either. Of course, her mother was dead and her father was too busy. Uncle Oscar would have come, but something came up at the last moment that kept him away. That meant that Ada was to be alone until Vincent came to the masquerade ball. Her friends all had their parents and of course she would never want to intrude upon their families. So she was to be alone with her thoughts. Normally that would have been nice, but lately—since the ski trip, actually—they had been more turbulent and strange than she would have liked.

Alone, she decided to take a walk through the mostly abandoned gardens of the campus. It wasn't the right time of year for the flowers to be in bloom, so most of the students didn't bother taking their parents to see it. However, there was something calming about the place to Ada; something that she couldn't put her finger on. When she was feeling badly, she went there frequently. Maybe it reminded her of her uncle a bit. Or at least of her home.

But this time, even the lonely garden could not console her. There was something missing, even in the crisp air and fallen leaves that usually calmed her so well. Worry clouded her mind. With Vincent coming so soon, she knew that she should be happy, but all she could feel was dread. And the thought that worried her the most came to the front of her mind. The thought that she did not want to see Vincent. "That's silly," she told herself. "I love him." At least, she thought that she did. "But…" she whispered, her voice no louder than the wind blowing around her.

"Ada Vessalius?" She jumped; frightened that someone had overheard her small conversation with herself. "What are you doing here? Don't you have some Vessalius scum to entertain?" It wasn't said with the usual malice as it usually had, but Ada could have picked out the voice anywhere.

"Elliot?" She perked up immediately, running over to Elliot, who was now standing at the gate of the garden. "It's you!" She grinned; she couldn't help it. It seemed like it had been forever since they had seen each other. She had seen him one day in the dining hall, but he had left so suddenly that she hadn't had a chance to say hello.

She could understand why he was avoiding her, he really could. After the incident on the ski trip, the entire school was buzzing about how they were seeing each other secretly. To want to keep a low profile was understandable. Completely understandable. And she had been telling herself that the entire week. But it felt so good to see him. Better than she had felt in a long time.

With the way that she had bounded over to him, Elliot was sure that she was going to hug him or something. Like she had done on the ski trip. He took a step back. "I should go," he said, regretting speaking out in the first place. He was an idiot; he knew that she went out here on a regular basis. He could see this place from his dorm window and would sometimes see her bouncing blonde hair out of the corner of his eye—no one else at school had a mane like that—on a nice day. But today was not a nice day; he had not thought that she would be here. He was just looking for somewhere to go away from the kids and their parents where he could think.

"No, don't go!" she said, her eyes growing wide. "It… It seems like we haven't seen each other in forever." Since the ski trip, she added in her mind. Since I touched you.

Elliot didn't move; he wanted to move, but he didn't move. He looked over at a pile of golden leaves at the edge of the walkway. "Where is your family?" he asked. Kinder than calling them scum, at least. That was the least he could do, wasn't it? She did seem honestly happy to see him. Surprising, since she had some sort of secret boyfriend.

She smiled, but there was something sad about it; it was half-filled. "No one could come." The false grin faded. "You?" she asked.

He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "My parents are too busy and my sister couldn't leave her own school to come here." He looked over at a tree where a bluebird was calling to his mate. "But I have Reo; he's the only family who I really need."

"I could be your family," Ada said, thinking this a bright idea. "And you could be mine. We could walk around all weekend and pretend to be interested in what our teachers have to say and…" she trailed off, seeing that Elliot wasn't as enthused as she was. "Sorry, Elliot, I think I just got a little ahead of myself. I just thought—"

"You're probably going to need to entertain that guy, won't you?" She looked at him with wide eyes. "I heard you talking to your friends. You've got some guy coming to the masquerade ball?"

He noticed that she didn't smile. "I guess so," she said. Then realizing what she had just said, she tried to rectify the situation. "But that doesn't mean that you and I—"

He took another step back. "I should go," he said, turning around all the way, knowing that he was not upset by this. He was not upset by the fact that Ada Vessalius—Vessalius scum—had a boy coming from God knows where to escort her to _his_ school dance. That did not upset him at all, and was definitely not the reason that he was turning around and beginning to rush back to his dorm.

It was the inspiration for another movement in his piece that was the real push behind his sudden flight.

"Elliot?" she asked, hoping that he'd stop for her once again. To turn and smile and say that he'd love to play family and that they could hang out for the week and spend time together and make her feel as whole as she did when she was out freezing in the cold with him. But he didn't turn around. Instead he continued walking down that path back to the school. "Elliot, come back," she said, knowing that he wouldn't hear her.

Pushing forward as fast as he could, Elliot went back to his piano. The second movement was finished. Now onto the third. The minuet. The dance section. The dance section that would be like a bluebird singing forlornly for a woman who had left the nest and did not seem to be able to come back.

It was sadder than he had hoped it would be.

…

Vincent reached the school in plenty of time for the masquerade party that Ada had invited him too. Of course he had other things to do—planning with the Baskervilles was a full-time job—but to further his plans, he could afford this one night to play around with the emotions of the little Vessalius girl. It was nice to humor a girl once in a while. It kept them wanting more.

Of course, he needed an alibi as to why he was there. It wasn't as if he could tell people that he was going to go meet Ada. Oh no. He needed something better than that. That's when little Elliot came in handy.

When he knocked on his little brother's door, at first he got no response. The second time, the only noise that came from inside was that of the clanking of a piano. But the third time, Elliot's lazy servant deigned to open the door for him. "He… Hello?" he asked, adjusting his too-large glasses as he yawned. "What is it?" He paused. "Wait, why are you here?" he asked.

Vincent raised an eyebrow, but kept a smile on his face. "Can't an older brother come visit his younger brother during the week where families are supposed to visit?" He expected to be invited in. His expectations would go unanswered.

"You didn't write," Reo said, yawning again. "Elliot won't be pleased."

Vincent's mouth twitched with mild irritation. "Yes, well, I've been busy and I wanted this trip to be a surprise." The servant said nothing. "May I come in?"

The servant shrugged. "I guess so. Just be warned; Elliot's not in the mood to entertain and hasn't been all week." Since he had gone out for a walk a few days ago, Elliot had been in a sour mood. All he did—which actually wasn't that much different than when he was in a good mood—was mope and write music. Seeing Vincent probably wouldn't cheer him much, either.

Vincent refrained from rolling his eyes, though he felt quite close to. "I came all this way to see my darling younger brother and you're not letting me in to see him. I almost think that you're trying to do this on purpose to cause a rupture in the Nightray family. Are you?" Reo said nothing. "That's what I thought. Now I'll visit Elliot."

He barged past Reo and towards the noise of the clunking piano. "Brother?" he asked before barging in.

Elliot lifted his dejected head from the keys. "Who are…" He stopped short upon seeing Vincent. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Vincent smiled. He had not expected a warm welcome. It was nice to be right. "I came for your masquerade ball tonight. We got a letter a few weeks ago inviting the entire family to attend. Sadly, I am the only one who could come. Aren't you glad that someone could, though?"

"I'm not going to the masquerade," Elliot said, surprising himself. When had he decided that? "So enjoy yourself alone."

Vincent couldn't be more pleased with this turn of events. "What? You have no girl that you like, no—"

The slamming of the key cover of the piano cut Vincent short. "No. I don't have a girl," he hissed. "Because the only girl that I may possibly like has some freaky secret boyfriend who is coming to the masquerade ball to whisk her off her feet while I sit here and angst. Is that what you want to hear?" Elliot's fingers twitched; he hadn't meant to say all that, especially when it was lies. He had no feelings for Ada Vessalius; none at all.

"What an interesting turn of events," Vincent said, leaning against the wall furthest from Elliot. "I was not aware that I had any sort of competition."

Elliot looked up at his stepbrother for the first time. "What do you mean by that?"

Vincent smiled. "Say, Elliot, come to the masquerade tonight. We can see who will win, you or me. I'd say that you have a fare shot; I'd assume that you talk to her more and have less of an agenda than I do." His red eye flashed in the candlelight of the room. "Ada Vessalius isn't much of a catch, but the game may make the prize worth it."

While Elliot stared speechless, Vincent walked out of the room. He had to prepare, now. He hadn't come expecting war, but was glad to partake in the battle. Something to make the courtship a bit more worth it. And even if he lost, how much did he really lose? It seemed to him that Elliot had a lot more at stake than he did. So he would go back to the hotel room that he had and get prepared for the night. He had to win the damsel, and he couldn't do that in his traveling clothes.

"Elliot?" Reo asked when Vincent left. "Are you—"

"I need a mask," Elliot said, suddenly full of fire. "I need one _now_."

Reo, happy to see that his master had regained his spunk, was more than happy to oblige. "I actually already ordered one for you. It's been sitting on my nightstand for four days..."

"Good," Elliot said, breaking out a determined grin. "I have to go to a party tonight."

…

_End of Chapter Three_


End file.
